Sonia Pierre remembered as a champion of Dominicans of Haitian descent

First Lady Michelle Obama (right) joins Secretary of State Clinton in presenting the 2010 International Women of Courage Award to Sonia Pierre (center) last March at the State Department in Washington.

Sonia Pierre, tireless fighter for the human rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent, will be buried today at Lechería, the humble migrant camp near Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic where she was born.

Pierre was only 48 when she suffered a fatal heart attack on Sunday, but her brave struggle for human rights could fill volumes.

“People are devastated, in shock, Sonia was one of a kind, it’s hard to believe she won’t be with us any more,” said Batala Aristide from Santo Domingo, a Brooklyn-born 18-year old who for two months has stayed at Pierre’s home while learning Spanish. “I was at the funeral home earlier today and it was crowded with all kinds of people painfully paying their respects.”

Pierre felt very early the pain of racial discrimination. She was arrested for the first time at 13 for organizing a march of Dominicans of Haitian descent for the rights of cane cutters.

She was threatened with deportation despite having been born in the Dominican Republic. From that moment on she dedicated her life to fight for the birthrights of her fellow Dominicans of Haitian descent.

“Today [Sunday\], the Dominican Republic lost a great hero,” said Councilman Ydanis Rodríguez (D-Washington Heights).

“Moving from humble origins to running the Movement for Dominican Women of Haitian Descent [MUDHA\],” Rodríguez added, “Sonia’s name became synonymous with progressive political change in the Dominican Republic, and so it’s difficult to overstate the impact she had on the lives of over 650,000 Dominicans of Haitian origin.”

Linked by geography and destiny, Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola and have similar histories of tyrannical governments and foreign invasions. Yet, they are deeply divided by a gulf of historical resentment and prejudice. Even today, Haiti’s occupation of Santo Domingo in the 19th century is still a source of mistrust.

“Haitian children born in the Dominican Republic are routinely denied birth rights,” said Ninaj Raoul, executive director for Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization. “This violates the Dominican constitution.”

Redressing this injustice was the thrust of Pierre’s lifelong struggle. Last year in Washington, First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Clinton joined in presenting Pierre the International Women of Courage Award.

In 2007 she was honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, also in Washington, for her tireless work in securing citizenship and education for Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.

Though the years Pierre endured physical attacks, imprisonment and innumerable threats to her life from so-called “nationalists”, but never wavered. In 2003 Amnesty International recognized her with an award for her commitment to the defense of human rights.

The threats and attacks from Dominican nationalists, some of them powerful political figures, intensified in the last three months after Pierre traveled to Washington for a public audience at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights dealing with the denial of citizenship and other abuses to her fellow Dominicans of Haitian parents. Despite the campaign of intimidation Pierre stood firm.

“Sonia was a tremendous leader. I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity to have participated in many journeys with her and for her unwavering vision that drove so many of us in the social justice movement,” said Raoul.

“Her human example and work for justice for so many are now a permanent legacy,” added Raoul, who traveled to Santo Domingo to attend the funeral and a protest for birthrights at the Supreme Court scheduled for tomorrow. “The protest is still on [because\] those of us who knew and loved her must carry her loving concern and her fight for dignity and birthrights for Dominicans of Haitian descent forward. That’s the best tribute we can give her.”